An Anatomical Gift

Semrau’s main point of his article is written in the statement, “Quite simply, use what you have until it can no longer function.” He strategically writes his article to ease the reader into the very unusual idea of donating your body to science. He takes the popular idea of going “green” to engage readers and get their approval. He then proceeds to tell about his past careers and medical interest. By examining his past, some of his reasons for his decision become known. He had always encompassed a strong desire to be of constant use to people. The reader is then able to tie this desire to be useful to the well promoted idea of reusing items. Together they make it easier to understand the surprising end to the article. His rational reasons for wanting to donate his body in addition to his creative writing technique help to encourage his audience to accept his decision. His writing strategy was therefore very successful in ensuring that the donation of a cadaver could be seen as a useful gift to the medical field instead of a somewhat controversial act. Readers leave the article intrigued at the idea of reusing the human body.

A Hymn about Love

Most hymns are written to praise God. Likewise, this hymn, “Savior of the Nations, Come”, is used as praise to God for sending his son into the world to serve as our sacrifice. This hymn’s theme centers on the immenseness of God’s love for us shown through Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection. Christ lovingly chose to be humbled by becoming a human and dieing for us. This great act of mercy and love drives Luther to write this hymn of praise.

           Luther uses diction to emphasize this theme. For example, in the first stanza he states, “the Lord chose such a birth”. He uses the word “chose” to help emphasize that Jesus was not forced to become human rather it was his choice to come and save us out of love. In the second stanza, Luther describes Christ as “pure and fresh” to help focus on Christ’s holiness to show how undeserving he was of his earthly suffering. Luther then writes, “Boundless shall Thy kingdom be”. He specifically chose the word ‘boundless” to show how large and powerful God’s kingdom will be because of Christ’s loving sacrifice. Therefore, God’s love shines throughout the text because of Luther’s use of diction.

Reverend Borghardt's Sermon Compared to Edward's Sermon

In applying Pastor Wilken's diagnostic to Borghrdt's sermon, he mentions Christ twenty-seven times. Of those twenty-seven times most of them are the subject of the verbs. These verbs are makes, sets, slain, took, died, rose, reigns, lived, came, and makes.

Reverend Borghardt's sermon focuses on the theme of our salvation. He tries to get his listeners to see God as a caring God who sent his Son to die for us. This loving act allows for us to no longer live in fear. Therefore, we should be overjoyed to share the gospel of this wonderful gift. In contrast, Edward’s sermon focuses on the theme of possible damnation. He focuses on God’s wrath and our inability to follow the law. Therefore, we should live in fear of damnation and share the gospel in order to save others from this dreadful end.

Tassels or No Tassels

     The Free Press article discusses the law that bans objects from hanging on the review mirror. This law is not enforced well, and most objects are not causing accidents. Therefore, they are reconsidering adjusting the law to allow people to hang small objects such as graduation tassels. I believe that the best quote is, "I call it a 'gotcha' law. It's an excuse to pull someone over." This seems like a clever name for the law. The quote basically sums up the law because most of the "illegal" objects aren't causing any harm, yet the law provides an excuse for police officers to stack up more charges against people. 
     Overall, I feel like it is unnecessary to ban all items from the rearview mirrors since most of them will not block the driver's view. However, it is reasonable to have certain restrictions to the size of the hanging objects.

Race or Ego

        Mitch Albom addresses in his article the natural tendency of people to bring up the issue of race. People shouldn't point to or ask about the role of a person's race in most circumstances. Particularly in LeBron James' case, any negative response toward him was pegged as being a result of his race. In my opinion, people all too often wrongly point to a person's race as the reason for the dislike or disapproval of him. It may be the person's character not his race that's in question. However, the focus remains on his race which gives him an out for his poor behavior. It is not only possible but probable that most of LeBron's fans originally supported him because of his talent in basketball. They probably broke away from LeBron because of his ego not his race. Albom makes a very effective point of stating a scenario where LeBron becomes Leo, a white basketball player. "Leo" still had an hour long special on himself and still said, "I'm gonna take my talents to South Beach." Therefore, as Albom strongly states, "ego knows no color." Black or white, LeBron James has a massive ego and no race likes it.